Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 29

79 Years Ago

Connie Brighton’s laughter sounds like a braying donkey. Giving her a sidelong glance of annoyance, I push leftover French fries on my plate around with a finger, gliding it through a smear of ketchup. It takes her only several seconds to realize that I am not interested, and she slumps against the table with a huff.

Connie and her friend, Rebecca Marsh, had invited themselves to our table a few minutes ago. Being the nice guys they are, Benny and Warren are politely entertaining them instead of sending them away. I know neither of them is interested in either of the two girls. There’s only one girl any of us are interested in.

“Did you hear about the dance, Benny?” Rebecca Marsh coos, leaning in close to him.

I glance up at him, brow raised, curious how he’ll handle the obvious attempt to give him an in to ask her. Benny looks paler than normal, tugging at the collar of his t-shirt like it might strangle him. Warren watches with a smirk hidden behind his hand.

“Yes, I heard about it,” he answers, slurping down some of his vanilla shake.

There is a pause as Rebecca patiently waits for him to continue and ask her to the dance. When he doesn’t, her lips twist into a strained smile.

“Are you going?” she prods.

I almost feel bad for Rebecca. Connie wriggles in the booth next to me, muttering something under her breath, her discomfort for her friend obvious. Benny catches my eye, the plea in his gaze obvious. I sigh and prepare myself to be the bad guy.

I’m ready to be blunt and tell them that even if we go to the dance, it won’t be with either of them, when a familiar face steps into the diner. My mouth slams closed, the surprise I feel overriding the need to help out Benny.

Ellie.

As her gaze scans the hopping room, Ellie fidgets with the skirt of her dress. I realize, as I stare at her, I have never seen her in anything but her maid uniform. The pretty green dress she wears seems slightly too small and a large ruffle drapes across her shoulders. Her hair, normally braided, is partially unbounded, curling and cascading around her like a waterfall of rich chocolate. The part still tied back is done so with a large bow. She looks like she could be attending the dance that Rebecca brought up, and not stopping at the diner for a bite.

Benny and Warren, noticing my shock, follow my line of sight. I hear Benny’s sharp inhale and it is almost as if Ellie hears it too, her head swinging around to meet his gaze.

Connie snickers next to me. “Who is that? She looks like a nincompoop, all dolled up in the dress of a little girl.”

She says it loud, loud enough for Ellie to hear her even over the din of the others in the diner. Cheeks heating, Ellie spins on her heel and rushes back out the door.

Benny and I move in tandem, causing Connie and Rebecca to yelp with surprise as we shove them out of the booth and onto their feet. I toss a stack of cash on the table to cover our bill, but none of us give an explanation to the dumbfounded girls. We—Warren included—dart for the door, ignoring Connie when she shouts an insult after us.

“Where did she go?” I ask, searching the parking lot.

“She wouldn’t have driven,” Warren points out. “She doesn’t have a car.”

“The Riverwalk,” Benny and I say together.

The three of us break into a run for the path that follows the river and would lead Ellie toward home. Because she is only walking—stomping is more accurate—we catch sight of her quickly.

“Ellie,” I shout when I see her, the hem of her dress bouncing with every step.

She whirls to face us. “What do you want?” she demands when we’re close.

Benny shocks the hell out of all of us by seizing her, hauling her forward so their bodies collide. “Why are you running from us?” he asks desperately.

Ellie tries to shake him off, but he won’t allow it, his hands clamped onto her wrists. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your time with those girls,” she snaps.

Warren steps forward, placing a hand on Benny’s shoulder before he can reply. “Ells, you didn’t interrupt anything,” he says in a soothing tone. “Those were two girls we know from school.”

The breeze catches her hair, tossing it around her and tangling it around Benny. “They were sitting with you,” she answers, less hostile.

Warren gives her a smile. “Exactly. They were only sitting. And,” he adds, “if I’m not mistaken, Richie here was about to send them packing.”

Green eyes seek me out. “You were?”

I stare at her, unable to move as she gives her attention to me fully. In the streetlight’s glow, with her hair loose and eyes full of tentative hope, Ellie is sinful to even look at. She has to be an angel that was too lovely even for heaven, and sent for us to admire instead.

“Jesus Christ,” I breathe, and both of the Cooper boys snap their attention to me as I take the Lord’s name in vain. I ignore them. “You’re so damn beautiful, Ellie.”

The brothers turn back to her and something changes between the four of us in that moment. The tension is thick around us as I shuffle closer to them, moving until we have Ellie entrapped in the triangle we’ve made around her.

“Why were you at the diner?” I ask.

She looks over her shoulder at me. “Because you asked me to come,” she answers softly.

I doubt she understands the double entendre her words hold, but it doesn’t matter. The idea of her coming, writhing naked underneath me, is all I can see in my head. My hand whips out and seizes her chin, and then my lips are pressed to hers as Benny continues to hold her captive.

Unlike this morning, there is no fight in her. Her mouth coaxes mine, drawing it in, opening up to me with a moan that goes straight to my cock. My fingers dance along jaw and into her hair, tangling with the strands as I control the tilt of her head to kiss her more thoroughly.

In this moment, nothing else matters. I can’t seem to remember anything but the feel of her mouth on mine, the minty taste of her tongue, the sweet way she is sighing into my mouth. My mind tumbles end over end, everything I have ever thought I’d known about who I am fading away and being replaced with Ellie throughout every fiber of my being.

When I draw back, just enough to leave a space between our mouths, her lashes flutter until she’s wide-eyed staring at me, her lips still parted.

Fingers flick the back of my hand hard where it has curled around Ellie’s throat, my grip just firm enough to make her feel like mine. I rip away my gaze to throw a glower at Warren, but he doesn’t give me time to move before his fingers pluck Ellie’s chin, turn her toward him, and he lays a kiss on her just as intense as ours was.

I glance at Benny as his brother kisses the girl he’s desperately clinging to, expecting to find him blowing a fuse. He isn’t. His eyes are glued on Ellie as her tongue dances with Warren’s, and those eyes are brimming with affection and heat. Relieved that he isn’t upset about us shoving our tongues down her throat, I turn back to enjoy the show before they pause.

“I have wanted to do that for so long,” Warren murmurs against her mouth as they pant.

Something in the air settles heavily over us and Warren stiffens, moving back, his attention darting to Benny. Ellie’s expression tightens with worry as she looks at the only one of us she hasn’t kissed. Inside, I panic a little too, wondering if I misread Benny’s mood. But it is clear that I did not when his mouth comes down on hers with something near violence.

Ellie’s moan is immediate and, while the kisses she shared with me and Warren were intense, theirs is full of something else—something like anguish. Like they’re taking advantage of every single touch because it may be their last.

Benny stumbles forward as he hoists Ellie up, breaking their kiss. Warren and I grab at his shirt, yanking him back before they both tumble to the ground. She wraps around him, her ankles locked behind his back and arms around his neck. His hands grip at her pale thighs and I can’t help but notice how her round little ass is peeking out from under her bunched up skirt.

I don’t have time to consider more because Ellie’s hand strikes out, seizing ahold of my hair and tugging me to her. I am all too happy to oblige her, this time allowing my hands to wander, sliding up the soft, smooth skin of her thigh, underneath her skirt. The moment that my fingertips brush against the cotton of the panties at her hip, Benny nudges me aside with his elbow.

“We should probably go somewhere a bit more private,” he says, his voice raspy.

All three of us exchange a look, knowing what he means, and then look to Ellie. She seems to know too, hesitation entering her posture, and she taps at Benny’s shoulder. He lets her down, his hands dragging upwards over her hips and settling on her waist.

Ellie looks at each of us, indecision and nervousness filling her expression. “This isn’t right,” she says softly. Her attention goes to Benny. “Pastor Cooper would be angry with us if we did…” Her voice trails off with uncertainty and a thought strikes me.

“Do you know what we want to do?” I ask gently, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. “Do you understand what we want?”

Her blush is deep red. “Yes,” she answers with a nervous laugh. “But how would all of us do…that?”

Surprise that she understands filters through me, but my cock doesn’t care, hardening so that it’s aching and throbbing, pressed up against my trousers. “You let us worry about that,” I answer, nearly groaning as visions of the three of us taking Ellie in different ways and positions assaults my brain.

I’m not like the Cooper boys, who I’m fairly certain have never had sex. My father, on my eighteenth birthday, took me out after my mother had gone to bed, and purchased a prostitute for me to lose my virginity to. He had made me swear not to tell anyone because if Pastor Cooper found out, my father’s position as the church director would be compromised.

While my father was arranging for me to lose my virginity to a woman years older than me, Benny and Warren were being lectured on the evils of sex before marriage and how the act should only be performed after marriage to conceive children. I hadn’t even told them about losing it, nor about the handful of girls I’ve fucked since then.

Benny shoots me a look. “Let us worry about it?” he repeats, his voice hushed like he’s afraid of being overheard. “We don’t even have anywhere to go that will be private.”

“I do,” I answer, scratching the back of my neck. “My parents are out of town for their wedding anniversary, remember?”

The gravity of the situation settles. It is becoming real, the idea that I could be buried inside Ellie tonight, and I know this is the point she will back out if she’s going to. She studies each of us, her fingers twisting together, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip as she considers.

A laugh draws her out of the trance she’s in. A couple walks by and all of us freeze, tracking them with our eyes. The man nods at us as they move on, the two of them hardly giving us a second glance as they continue to chat.

Ellie watches them go, and when they’re out of earshot, she turns to me, her gaze unwavering. “I know my daddy would say this is sinful, and so would yours.” She glances at Benny and Warren, then back at me. “They would say this is the Devil’s work, how I want to love all three of you.”

My heart thuds in my chest. I want to say that her declaration is simply a na?ve statement that a teenage girl would make. But her words resonate with me, a power behind them I don’t quite understand. It isn’t that I don’t love her—it is that I can’t imagine not loving her.

“Maybe I would rather be sinful if it meant I didn’t have you,” she finishes, her shoulders lifting in a shrug. “I’ve been trying to not give in for so long, partly because I need my job and partly because I felt guilty about having feelings for all three of you. And then Richie kissed me this morning—”

“You kissed her this morning?” Warren interrupts, raising a brow at me.

I grin, unable to hide it. “Yeah. I did.”

“Anyway,” Ellie says sharply, and she rolls her eyes when I chuckle. “He kissed me and I realized I didn’t feel guilty about it. Well, not about the kiss anyhow,” she amends, smirking at me.

“She slapped me,” I explain when the brothers look at me with a question in their eyes.

“So I’m done fighting it,” Ellie continues before anyone can tease me for getting put in my place. She steps toward Benny, laying her palm against his cheek, and holds her arm out, drawing Warren closer until his forehead is against hers.

“Go get your car, Richie,” she murmurs, “and take us home.”